£3000 budget for gaming laptop.. help me pick :)

clancy2k

clancy2k

Bronze Level Poster
Hello,

I'm very keen on ordering myself a new gaming laptop in the next day or two. The Vortex III and Viper III on here look very nice, or perhaps an alienware m18x.. haha just kidding.. they are such a rip-off lol

Anyways, Both the high end laptop on PCS seem to offer very similar specs, but i'm wondering what has better GPU performance, GTX 560m sli of the Viper 3 or the GTX 675M of the Vortex 3? Can anyone link me a site that have benched and compared both these set ups?

Also, is it worth waiting for the ivy bridge extreme processor?

Thanks in advance:)
 
clancy2k

clancy2k

Bronze Level Poster
Thanks for the info and links guys.. Would it be possible to get the Viper with SLi 580m? maybe if i asked nicely? lol
 
clancy2k

clancy2k

Bronze Level Poster
Also, I'm not very exsperianced with RAID 0 HDD set ups. Would x2 120GB kingston SSD in RAID 0 be sufficiant enough? or should i go for a 120GB SSD + 750GB HD? Woud the RAID 0 set up be alot faster?

cheers
 
dangro474

dangro474

Bright Spark
clancy2k said:
Also, I'm not very exsperianced with RAID 0 HDD set ups. Would x2 120GB kingston SSD in RAID 0 be sufficiant enough? or should i go for a 120GB SSD + 750GB HD? Woud the RAID 0 set up be alot faster?

cheers
Click to expand...

Oh god please don't. Raid 0 SSD's is so unncessary its borderline rediculous.

If you are looking to spend up to £3k on a gaming laptop you should be looking for an SLI configuration to maximise performance. My recommended target components would be:

CPU: i7 2760/2860 depending on budget, 3720 if looking to purchase after Ivy Bridge release date.
GPU: SLI 580M / 675M / 6990M, or SLI 7970M / 680M when they become available later this year (release date unconfirmed).
SCREEN: Matte 72%+ NTSC
HDD: SSD primary large enought o accomodate your operating system, applications and the games you intend to play to maximise its impact on your gaming performance. 1TB 5.4k RPM secondary if you require storage space for media.
OPTICAL: Blu-Ray Reader/Writer if you require one, otherwise DVD-RW or an HDD caddy for an additional storage drive. You will most likely need to purchase an external optical drive for OS / certain game installation.
RAM: 8GB highest frequency supported RAM, this is all you will need for a few years. 16GB if you intend to do any heavy 3d or video editing.

The ideal laptop for you would be the Clevo P270EM, which has unfortunately been suspended due to technical issues. I would advise against purchasing an Alienware 18x due to poor personal experiences with Dell.

If you are looking to purchase a maxed out vortex III with its current configuration rather than wait for Ivy Bridge and the 680 GTX I would recommend the following:

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series:17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2860QM (2.50GHz) 8MB

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory - Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD10JPVT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BC-5550H 4x BLURAY COMBO DRIVE & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£59)

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)

Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)

TOTAL: £1907.00 inc VAT Delivered
Click to expand...

Purchasing a laptop with SLI GPUs can add up to £600 to the price, but will provide you with a performance boost of up to 95% as long a sthe games you intend to play support SLI. Even if SLI profiles are not provided by your GPU drivers, forcing Alternate Frame Rendering 2 in the Nvidia Control Panel works most of the time.

Spending more than this on anything other than an increase in primary SSD volume, change optical drive, order a spare battery and charger (I always do so nowadays) or to opt for a faster turnaround would be counter productive.

Hope this helps
 
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jameslondon05

Member
Sorry m8 but the viper III is no more. I just got the last one and it was taken of the site just after. I guarantee I will use it well tho. :)
James
 
clancy2k

clancy2k

Bronze Level Poster
jameslondon05 said:
Sorry m8 but the viper III is no more. I just got the last one and it was taken of the site just after. I guarantee I will use it well tho. :)
James
Click to expand...

Ok cool, i decided to go for the Vortex III anyways. It was between that and an Alienware m18x, but the same specs on the alienware were £500+ more :wacko:

This is the configuration i went for, can't wait to get it! :tt1:

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series:17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2860QM (2.50GHz) 8MB

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)

Graphics CardnVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory - Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
500GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 3 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BC-5550H 4x BLURAY COMBO DRIVE & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£59)

Memory Card ReaderInternal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1102 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N NETWORK CARD

USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD

Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT

Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)

Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Laptop Cooling Stands
Zalman ZM-NC3000S Ultimate Cooler, 220mm fan, upto 17.3inch (£35)

Laptop Security
KENSINGTON MICROSAVER SECURITY KIT FOR NOTEBOOKS (£29)

Carry Case
TARGUS XL CITY GEAR 16" - 17.3" LAPTOP CASE TCG417 (£43)

Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

WebcamINTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Headsets (VOIP)
CREATIVE® HS-800 FATAL1TY GAMING HEADSET (£26)

Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)

Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)

Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft

Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON (£9)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity 1

Price: £2,147
 
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